Giving thanks for food banks

Thanksgiving is the holiday we associate most with sharing a meal with loved ones, and if some years the table is less crowded with either food or good company, we feel the loss even as we give thanks for the gifts we have.

This week, I wrote about how the commercial supply chain has gotten much better at supplying stores and foodservice businesses before and after a storm such as Sandy, which killed 121 people and destroyed the homes of countless others in and around my home state of New Jersey. My family and I are lucky: We were without power for days, some of us more days than others, but our homes are intact. The nor’easter left us with only a few inches of snow, which melted soon after the sun came out. Gas rationing has ended, and we’re getting back to normal. We’ll sit down to our traditional Thanksgiving meal a bit more thankful for all that we have and probably more aware than we were last year that, prepare as we do, many things in life are out of our control.